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Oklahoma State Basketball

Updated: Oklahoma State Hires Steve Lutz as Next Men's Basketball Head Coach

April 1, 2024
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STILLWATER – Oklahoma State men’s basketball has found its new head coach. It was announced on Monday Chad Weiberg is hiring Steve Lutz, the former head coach at Western Kentucky. 

This news comes nearly a week after Pokes Report announced Weiberg had interviewed Lutz, as well as naming him the top candidate for the job.

"I'd like to thank Chad Weiberg and Dr. Shrum for entrusting me with one of college basketball's most storied programs. It's a responsibility that I don't take lightly," Lutz said in the release. "Cowboy Nation -- I look forward to meeting you all soon and hitting the ground running. Know that my staff and I will work diligently to recruit and retain hardworking kids who will represent you well, on and off the court, and consistently compete for Big 12 championships."

Lutz just finished his first year with WKU in the opening round of the NCAA tournament following a 22-12 overall record, which includes winning the Conference USA tournament. 

"Coach Lutz is known as one of the hardest-working coaches in the business," Weiberg said in the release. "He has worked at all levels of college basketball and has deep ties to this part of the country, especially Texas. The work he has put into his career has resulted in success as a head coach and why I believe he is the right person to be the leader of Cowboy Basketball."

The 51-year-old out of San Antonio, TX, has been a head coach for the past three season, one with Western Kentucky and two with Texas A&M Corpus Christi before that, compiling a 69-35 overall record. 

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Prior to that, Lutz spent several seasons as an assistant coach under Greg McDermott at Creighton, 2010-17, and the next five seasons at Purdue under Matt Painter, giving Lutz a direct connection to the Eddie Sutton coaching tree. Painter played his college ball at Purdue from 1989-93 under head coach Gene Keady, who was an assistant coach under Eddie Sutton at Arkansas from 1975-78. Ironically enough, Keady left Arkansas to become the head coach at Western Kentucky in 1978.

Lutz checks a lot of good boxes when it comes to his coaching style, which is focused on defense, which should come as no surprise being in the Iba/Sutton coaching tree. First and foremost, he’s a proven player developer. During his two seasons at Corpus Christi, his leading scorer and rebounder was stretch forward, Isaac Mushila, who scored 13.2 points per game on 53% shooting from the field, 31% from 3-point range and nearly 79% from the free throw line and brought down 9.4 boards per game. In year two, Mushila posted nearly 15 points per game on 54% shooting from the field, 36% from 3-point range and nearly 84% from the free throw line, while bringing down 10 rebounds per game.

Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

He's also turned two programs around immediately in TAMU CC and WKU as the Islanders were 5-19 in 2020-21 and 23-12 in 2021-22 when Lutz took over. The appearance in the Big Dance in 2021-22 marked the first since 2007 for the Islanders, as was the conference championship. As for the Hilltoppers, they were 17-16 in 2022-23 and 22-12 in the one year under Lutz and hadn’t made the NCAA tournament since the 2013 season, the same year they last won the C-USA tournament.

Discussion from...

Updated: Oklahoma State Hires Steve Lutz as Next Men's Basketball Head Coach

7,919 Views | 11 Replies | Last: 7 mo ago by Zach Lancaster
POOBAPOKE
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Welcome to the Family. Go Pokes!
RodeoPoke
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well, here we go

Good luck Coach
TUSKAPOKE
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Welcome! Cowboys need to go dancing soon! GO POKES!!!
WichitaCowboy
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Welcome to Stillwater! Now convince those players to stay!
elpryor
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Fruit from the Eddie Sutton coaching tree should produce some "sweet" results.Hopefully he can pick
some plums from the Portal Tree, bring some good players with him, and convince our good guys to stay!
GO POKES!
CProc7
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He's got a lot of work to do. Glad we finally made a move.
Inquisitor
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Welcome Coach.

Obviously the heart of our team is in the portal. Go get em back!
RodeoPoke
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what does he have to start with (assuming announced players stay in portal, and no more bail)?

Javon Small PG 6-3
Bryce Thompson SG 6-6
Jamyron Keller SG 6-3
Connor Dow SF 6-6
Justin McBride PF 6-8

Recruit
Jeremiah Johnson SG 6-3

A pretty good core of players but clearly lacking enough big men inside and overall depth.

If he could bring a couple of the bigs from WKU, like Rodney Howard and Tyrone Marshall, we'd be in decent shape with 5 scholarships left.

lots of "ifs", and lots of challenges.




Zach Lancaster
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Staff
RodeoPoke said:

what does he have to start with (assuming announced players stay in portal, and no more bail)?

Javon Small PG 6-3
Bryce Thompson SG 6-6
Jamyron Keller SG 6-3
Connor Dow SF 6-6
Justin McBride PF 6-8

Recruit
Jeremiah Johnson SG 6-3

A pretty good core of players but clearly lacking enough big men inside and overall depth.

If he could bring a couple of the bigs from WKU, like Rodney Howard and Tyrone Marshall, we'd be in decent shape with 5 scholarships left.

lots of "ifs", and lots of challenges.





Yeah he'll for sure have some work to do building next year's roster, but from what we've heard, both Brandon Garrison and Eric Dailey have remained on campus and have kept engaged with the program and are willing to listen to what the new coach, now Lutz, has to say about his philosophy on both sides of the ball, how he can develop players and grow a team. So, while it's no guarantee they both stay, I like that they were willing to stick around. Knowing Lutz has taken his last three teams to the tournament, and recruited Zach Edey to Purdue shows he's knows ball and knows big men. Certainly a good starting point.

Now, if he's not able to keep them, then yeah he'll need to go out and get some big bodies and get them ready to go for the fall.
RodeoPoke
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Zach Lancaster said:


Yeah he'll for sure have some work to do building next year's roster, but from what we've heard, both Brandon Garrison and Eric Dailey have remained on campus and have kept engaged with the program and are willing to listen to what the new coach, now Lutz, has to say about his philosophy on both sides of the ball, how he can develop players and grow a team. So, while it's no guarantee they both stay, I like that they were willing to stick around. Knowing Lutz has taken his last three teams to the tournament, and recruited Zach Edey to Purdue shows he's knows ball and knows big men. Certainly a good starting point.

Now, if he's not able to keep them, then yeah he'll need to go out and get some big bodies and get them ready to go for the fall.
I hope that you're right, but honestly what did you expect them to do, transfer mid-semester?

They must retain their eligibility, and development is nice, but NIL money talks... all 3 should have decent money offers coming their way that they'll need to also consider.

all we can do really is cross our fingers and hope for the best outcome for OSU.

Zach Lancaster
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Staff
RodeoPoke said:

Zach Lancaster said:


Yeah he'll for sure have some work to do building next year's roster, but from what we've heard, both Brandon Garrison and Eric Dailey have remained on campus and have kept engaged with the program and are willing to listen to what the new coach, now Lutz, has to say about his philosophy on both sides of the ball, how he can develop players and grow a team. So, while it's no guarantee they both stay, I like that they were willing to stick around. Knowing Lutz has taken his last three teams to the tournament, and recruited Zach Edey to Purdue shows he's knows ball and knows big men. Certainly a good starting point.

Now, if he's not able to keep them, then yeah he'll need to go out and get some big bodies and get them ready to go for the fall.
I hope that you're right, but honestly what did you expect them to do, transfer mid-semester?

They must retain their eligibility, and development is nice, but NIL money talks... all 3 should have decent money offers coming their way that they'll need to also consider.

all we can do really is cross our fingers and hope for the best outcome for OSU.


No, you're right about them having to retain eligibility, but when most players enter the portal, they starting taking online classes and split town, or at least stay in their dorms/houses. These guys have stayed on campus and in the gym and engaged with the program like they weren't in the portal. That tells me that they still like it here and are willing to see it through with Lutz before making an "official" decision.

Now, with that said, I do agree with you about NIL money. Lutz and OSU is going to have some work to do to keep Dailey and Garrison here. Definitely going to be an interesting next couple of weeks for sure.
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